Chinese-made handheld emulation devices aren't a new thing by any means, and each year countless new variants appear on the scene which do pretty much the same thing: play ROMs via emulation using cheap and readily available off-the-shelf components.
However, the Waveshare GPM280 caught our eye recently, not for what it can do, but what it looks like. It's basically a shameless copy of Nintendo's dinky Game Boy Micro, right down to the Famicom-style colour scheme which was used on one of the limited edition models back in the day.
Powered by a 1.2 GHz quad-core ARM Cortex-A53 and packing 1GB of RAM, the GPM280 is larger in size than the original Micro, which will surely alleviate some of the comfort issues people experienced with Nintendo's machine. There's a larger 2.8″ IPS screen, too (resolution: 640 × 480 pixels), and the whole thing is juiced by a 1500 mAh battery. There's even WiFi support so you can transfer files without having to mess about with Micro SD cards (it supports cards of up to 32GB in size, while we're on the topic).
With support for consoles like the Game Boy Advance, NES, Master System, SNES, Neo Geo and PlayStation One, the GPM280 is certainly capable – but then most handhelds of this type can run all of those formats. The sticking point is likely to be the price, which, at around $150, isn't cheap when compared to what else is available on the market. But then again, its rivals don't look as swish as this.
You can check out a full hands-on review of the device over at Retro Dodo:
[source youtube.com]
Comments 23
What is that ?
A handhelds for The Smurfs ? 😆
NDS Lite is still the Best choice to play both NDS and GBA games with cheaper price.
Hmm, the irony of this using a 640x480 screen means it's not ideal for GBA games despite the GB Micro aesthetic.
If you want an emulation device that's perfect for GBA games, try the RG351M or RG351P. They feature a 480x320 screen that can display GBA games perfectly due to their 240x160 resolution.
The RG351P even comes in purple reminiscent of the original GBA.
Make sure you install custom firmware 351Elec if you get one.
I suppose "GPM" stands for "GamePoy Micro". But isn't totally different since it has 2 extra buttons.
'comfortable'- I wonder if it is after 20mins of gaming, far too tiny for my adult hands lol
640x480 is enough for good scaling, though I suppose these devices never have any filters beside blurry linear.
Since it's emulation and not really a clone then it should really come with some filters otherwise I think your money's better spent elsewhere.
EDIT: Oh, since it's raspberry pi it must have some filter options I guess? But on such a small screen it might not be so great, hard to say.
For $100 you could buy some 3DS variant, mod it, and play GBA games with sharp scaling and 100% hardware accuracy.
Just buy an Anbernic RG351V or RG351M and call it a day. Anbernic got you covered if you want a small device. Try the Anbernic RG280V.
Why would someone buy this when you can buy a switch lite for just $50 more and then just emulate the software that this is capable of running on your phone. Better yet, buy an 8bitdo bluetooth controller and use it to play the software on your phone.
@RupeeClock So, is it legal to get a system like that and is it legal to download the games?
I am really interested but I also don't want anyone knocking on my door saying that I am some sort of thief.
@MysteryCupofJoe I'm not 100% sure about this but I think it is perfect legal to buy the system but it is illegal to DL the games.
I have a bunch of these Chinese handhelds and really dig them. I usually look for the ones that come preloaded w/games (which again, I think having the games on it is technically illegal) because I don't want to go through the hassle of DL'ing the games myself.
@MysteryCupofJoe
The devices are legal as are the emulators that run on them.
You can get any number of legal homebrew ROMs for all sorts of systems.
Of course, downloading ROMs of commercial copyrighted video games is always illegal. Enthusiasts will opt to dump ROMs from their legally owned authentic game cartridges, although doing so will produce a file that is byte for byte identical to one downloaded online. The distinction is that it wasn't an unauthorised copy, it was a backup.
Anti fingerprint technology? Eh?
@RupeeClock It's a bunch of legal spagetti really, I own several PC games with installers that only run on 32 bit machines, the games are not broken, I still own them but I cannot play them.
It is illegal for me to download the same game from a torrent site that is, say, the GoG version of said game that is made to work and optimized for modern pc.
@khululy
In that situation it can be argued that you aren't entitled to the changes made to get the software running on newer systems, because of the work that took place to make it happen or the licensing agreements involved.
There is a chance that you could still use your 32-bit games by running them inside of a Virtual Machine solution, too.
But that itself is also a matter of using a legal operating system for the VM.
I’m interested in this. I love my micros! Oddly, I’m not bothered by the small size...I mean I don’t play forever on one, but I will put in a couple hours at a time.
@AlienX Do you have CFW installed or just a regular hack like Cubic Ninja? Or does the New 3DS handle GBA ROMs better than the OG 3DS?
@technotreegrass
Basically you run GBA games on 3DS CFW like you do the 10 Ambassador titles that were given to early 3DS adopters.
A GBA rom is packed into a title that is launched like those, but with some configuration changes that disable the dim screen display or ghosting blur.
It works in that your 3DS uses the ARM7 processor to change to GBA mode, so should be virtually identical to running GBA hardware or GBA mode on DS systems.
Looks awesome. There’s temptation for sure. I’m happy with GBA on the 3DS, probably always will be. I use the Vita for vintage consoles up to PS1, still a great device in this day and age
I‘m not really into GameBoy games anymore but if I were to spent over a 150 bucks I‘d get an Analogue Pocket instead. Yes, it‘s 50 bucks more but considering the quality of their products and the pocket having the same (or more) capabilities I‘d say that it‘s the better option.
@Anti-Matter Still have mine! Woot haha. Plus they are soft modable now I think.
@technotreegrass CFW, it doesn't matter if it's a New 3DS or old 3DS, the hardware that runs the game is the same for both models, just like DS/DSi mode.
One of the coolest things about playing on 3DS is the very detailed screen ghosting option, you can make motion as blurry as a Game Gear or as subtle as an AGS-101.
The scaling used is also far sharper than the one used for DS mode. Highly recommend trying it if you enjoy GBA games.
@RupeeClock dude this thing has a screen dpi/ppi of over 280. That's retina display territory which means any system you put on it will be razer sharp. Sure you'll have small black bars for GBA but it'll still look better than ANY screen smaller than 3inches. If you like small consoles that screen is amazing.
This is the first of these handhelds to have a 640x480 at 3 inches or smaller.
@brunojenso
You know despite the high DPI display, that it will still need to scale the GBA image 2.667x times to fit the screen.
That non-uniform scaling will mean you need to have a good scaling algorithm for the image to look good, despite being printed small.
That said, this thing appears to be running Retropie, which seems to be Retroarch? If it has shader support and it can run a sharp-bilinear-2x-prescale Shader, it should look pretty good actually. I recently learned this about the RG351V which also has a 640x480 screen albeit a larger one.
Pretty good, just not totally ideal.
@BongoBongo123 because a portable emulator is much more simple it works out of the box and is easy to use also an android phone isn't as portable as the rg300x or the other ambernic devices because you have to carry around both the phone and the 8bitdo controller in your pocket
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